NEW PRIVACY THREAT SEEN: Bill would regulate U.S. agencies' sharing of personal dataAuthor(s): Nancy BlodgettSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 73, No. 1 (JANUARY 1, 1987), pp. 29, 32Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20759093 .

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NEW PRIVACY THREAT SEEN Bill would regulate U.S. agencies' sharing of personal data

Concern for individual privacy rights as government agencies in creasingly trade computerized infor mation has prompted legislation in the U.S. Senate.

In August, Sen. William Cohen, R-Maine, introduced a bill to provide more privacy and due process protec tion to people whose personal data is being exchanged among federal agen cies. The bill died in committee but Cohen plans to reintroduce it this winter.

For example, such "computer matching" could mean checking IRS data to see whether a woman applying for welfare has unearned income not reported on her welfare application.

Currently, federal agencies have electronic access to more than half of the government's 3.5 billion records. As many as 200 ongoing matching programs involve benefit programs? from student loans to Medicare.

The information is used to locate persons who have not registered for the draft or paid child support, ac cording to Abner Mikva, chairperson of the ABA's Individual Rights and Re sponsibilities Section and author of a report on the subject prepared for the ABA House of Delegates.

AN IRS MASTER FILE The IRS also proposes creating a

master debtor file to match against tax returns so that debts owed the government can be deducted from tax refunds.

As required by law, the Federal Register contains notices of first-time computer matches of recipients of civil service pensions, veteran disabil ity benefits, railroad retirement bene fits, subsidized housing and black lung payments.

While this type of "computer matching" is legal, it conflicts with the ABA-backed Fair Information Practice guideline that personal information collected for one purpose may not be used for another without notice or consent, according to Jerry Berman, director of the ACLU's Privacy and Technology Project in Washington,

P.C._

Abner Mikva

persons who are identified as 'hits' in computer matches," said Cohen.

"Unchecked disclosures and ex changes of personal records could re sult in 'fishing expeditions' by over zealous government officials who may be insensitive to the privacy and confidentiality rights of citizens," as serted Cohen.

DATA INTEGRITY BOARDS He maintained his bill would

remedy the "lack of attention paid to privacy implications of matches" by establishing Data Integrity Boards in federal agencies subject to the Privacy Act of 1974.

These boards would review and approve the matching agreements proposed in Cohen's Act. These boards are modeled after one already in existence?the Defense Depart

ment's Defense Privacy Board. Also in August, at the ABA An

nual Meeting, a resolution was passed by the House of Delegates backing legislation to prohibit such "non consensual use of income tax, census,

political activity, religious affiliation The Privacy Act of 1974, which

regulates government records con taining information about individuals, could conceivably have helped to reg ulate abuses in this area, but critics argue that a "routine use" exception has taken the teeth out of the act.

THE BILL Sen. Cohen's bill, originally known

as the Computer Matching and Pri vacy Protection Act of 1986, would amend the Privacy Act of 1974 by re quiring federal agencies and state agencies working with them to enter into written agreements before dis closing records for use in matching programs.

These agreements would specify the procedures the agencies must fol low in securing records used in

matches. They also would specify the conditions governing return and de struction of data after a match has been completed.

These agreements also would re strict how the data can be used, such as "redisclosing the information and creating new, permanent files about

^^^^^^

Jerry Berman

ABA JOURNAL / JANUARY 1, 1987 29

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A Sen. William Cohen

and similarly sensitive data files for the purpose of verifying the eligibility of citizens for government benefit pro grams."

SPECIFIC NOTICE The ABA resolution supports leg

islation requiring specific notice to ap plicants for any government benefits that information they supply may be given out to other federal agencies. Cohen's bill has this provision.

"Citizens must be given notice on the forms they fill out that this is going on and should be asked for their consent," said Berman, a backer of

Cohen's bill and the ABA resolution. "Now the only notice given that

this kind of thing is taking place is in the Federal Register, and very few people read that," said Berman.

The ABA resolution recommends that government agencies indepen dently verify any computerized data comparison before a government ben

efit is cut off or denied. Cohen's bill also proposes such independent veri fication.

"Computers make mistakes and human beings make errors inputting data into them," noted Berman.

"Human verification of discrepancies [in data comparisons] is also neces sary."

If Cohen's bill passes, Berman suggested that injunctive relief and damages could become viable options to give weight to its provisions:

?Nancy Blodgett

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32 ABA JOURNAL / JANUARY 1, 1987

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